Growing up, Chris Spang lived in a very small Swedish village. He had his older brother, Andreas, to help provide entertainment, and his boxer father got the boys involved with his former sport when they were very young.

But because his area was so small, it was difficult to find fights. The boys took to their mother’s sport for more regularity in competing.

They were gymnasts.

“Where we come from is in the woods,” Spang told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “We were training all the time with my dad, but it was hard to find competitions. In gymnastics, there were competitions a lot.”

So Spang showed his gymnastics agility in front of crowds until he could find more steady work in combat sports. That has come recently, as Spang has jumped to a 4-0 MMA professional record entering a short-notice fight on a new Strikeforce contract.

Spang (4-0 MMA, 1-0 SF) is set to face welterweight Ricky Legere (13-4 MMA, 0-0 SF) on the preliminary card of Saturday night’s “Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine” event at Las Vegas’ The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The four-fight preliminary card – which also includes Alonzo Martinez vs. Estevan Payan, Nah-Shon Burrell vs. James Terry, and Trevor Smith vs. Gian Villante – airs on Showtime Extreme for the first time (and also during a “free-preview” weekend), which gives more viewers a look at the former boxer/gymnast who has moved to Las Vegas to continue his MMA career.

Not that exposure is new for Spang. His Stockholm MMA team traveled around Europe for amateur competitions, which gave the 24-year-old fighter experience in different cities.

But for the 170-pound fighter nicknamed “The Kiss” – his website, christhekiss.com, is expected to debut soon – this quickly developing Strikeforce opportunity is his next chance to impress.

“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” he said. “I just signed my contract two weeks ago, and I have a fight already, so I’m very excited.”

Smooth moves

Because Spang lived in a smaller village, finding time and space for adventure was not difficult. With an older brother, who would also go on to become an MMA fighter – Andreas Spang is 7-1 with a Strikeforce Challengers victory over Willie Parks in November – Spang also had encouragement.

What he didn’t have was much competition for his first love: boxing.

“It was hard to develop,” he said. “You had to spend a lot of time doing your own training with your own focus. You think, ‘One day I’ll move away from here and train to be a pro.’ That was the focus.”

The athletic attention sometimes shifted to gymnastics with encouragement from Spang’s mother. Between the boxing and gymnastics, his body developed with little fat and significant strength, and he competed much more in gymnastics than he did in boxing, as much as twice a month in some stretches.

Even though it might not be the most common MMA background, the gymnastics training has helped Spang significantly.

“Over the years you develop great body control,” he said. “You get explosiveness from gymnastics, and it’s the same thing with MMA, especially with throws. It has definitely helped.”

As he always imagined, when Spang was 18, he moved from his small village to Stockholm, the big city. His plan was to continue to train in boxing and hopefully begin a professional career.

However, professional boxing was illegal at the time in Sweden, which made finding fights understandably difficult. That meant he needed to find a new way to compete regularly.

Then, with the help of his brother, MMA became his next sporting love.

To the U.S.

Spang said Andreas was first interested in MMA after watching videos he ordered. It was a natural transition for boys who grew up with their father’s intense boxing interest.

Then, once he was in the bigger city of Stockholm, MMA became more accessible. There was an MMA team in the city, and Spang found his way to the gym when he was 18 years old. He was fighting soon after.

“My first fight was a month, maybe two months later,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

He had training, just not MMA training. He mixed the countless hours of drilling in boxing by himself in his small village with the poise of a regularly competing gymnast to win that first amateur fight.

“When I got to that team,” he said, “everything got serious.”

The team traveled to places including Denmark, Finland and other counties near Sweden to compete. Spang fought 17 times as an amateur, won a wide majority of those contests, and all the while wonderred what it would be like to have a career in the United States.

His brother made the first move, going to Vegas, and Spang traveled back and forth for awhile. He won his professional debut in Stockholm in 2008, and by his second fight, he was in North America, winning in Canada.

Spang’s American debut came in September when he beat Joe Ray by unanimous decision at Strikeforce Challengers 19. It was a fight that arrived quickly with little notice, and Spang hoped the one-fight deal would turn into more.

It did. Saturday’s opportunity came up two weeks ago, which doesn’t allow much time to prepare. Although, between boxing, gymnastics and dreams of fighting, Spang has been preparing basically all of his life.

“I train all the time to stay ready, so even if something comes up like this, I’m ready,” he said. “I stay hungry all the time.”

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by Gorgeous George, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Goze. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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